Great Expectations

One of the best things about Netflix is their breadth of offerings. Beginning last week I began to relook at Alec Guiness movies. I am a great fan of Dickens so when I realized that one of Guinness' early movies (actually done with the director David Lean) was Great Expectations - it was immediately on my list.

I am such a fan of Dickens, that I must have a dozen versions of a Christmas Carol on film. (Yes, Alister Simm is the best one.) Each Christmas we have a tradition, that is mostly me now, of watching at least a couple of the versions in the days leading up to Christmas. Dickens characters constantly come up in my newsletter for the Association I work for. And the list of Dickensean references that one sees in every day life is huge. Pip, the name of the main character in the novel is a small seed or also the smallest unit of currency. Dickens had a way with names conveying more than just a name. Gradgrind, Pumblechuck, Scrooge, and even Pip all show up occasionally in our language.

When I was first in graduate school I was a bit bored. I came from an undergraduate degree at University of the Pacific to my first graduate work in International Relations at George Washington University. I was,at first, a bit intimidated. GW had a big time rep in what I thought then was a big time city. But I soon discovered that I could compete quite well AND that UOP had prepared me quite well for this program. So I began a process of self education. There was a big bookstore right above Foggy Bottom and I began about October to read authors. I would choose an author and buy all of his novels - by the end of the year I had read all of Hesse, Sinclair Lewis, Twain, Upton Sinclair, and Dickens (except Bleak House and the American Notes - I have since finished American Notes - which is really pretty good but Bleak House remains unfinished). I even took on some Thomas Mann. My idea at the time had been that I had spent my undergraduate career assiduously not reading novels and so I should get a somewhat organized look at some of the great novelists. That approach had two defects. First, when you read all of a writer's work at once the characters blend together. Second, although I think I got something out of all of the writers I chose - it is an odd list. I never got around to Tolstoy or some others that would round me out a bit. But the process kept me interested during that first year of graduate school. I never did finish a degree at GW - got into a riff with them about my language exam (it was pretty stinky, I did not take their language prep course and so I got a note I had passed and then failed, I protested and the Dean and the German department simply passed the buck saying if you convince the other I will change the result - so I left and went on to work in the White House and finally after a summer institute at the Harvard Business School went back to USC and finished a doctorate.)

The story in Great Expectations is well known. A country boy(PIP) is the recipient of a benefactor's gift which he suspects wrongly comes from one person but comes actually from another. He moves to London, pursues the ward of his supposed benefactor (at first unsuccessfully) and then discovers that his benefactor is actually a convict that he aided when he was a waif in the country. What I have loved about the story is the way that Dickens develops the characters. When Magwitch (the convict) is first seen on the screen he is truly scary. The lawyer, who is a crimminal lawyer (should be a clue but when I first read the book I completely missed it), Jaggers is typical of Dickens' pictures of lawyers - the lawyers in Bleak House are even more stark but this one serves his purpose. Miss Haversham (the character Pip thinks is his benefactor) is eccentric. Uncle Pumblechook is how Dickens always seems to portray relatives. Joe, his first guardian, is a wonderful mix of simple honesty. Estella is at first unattainable but has a good heart. Bentley Drummel, who Estella marries but then dies, is an upper class lout. So all of the characters are well drawn.

The movie is also striking because it has some very young and futurely famous actors. Herbert Pocket (Pip's room-mate and guide for his time in London) is John Mills - who went on to a distinguished career in stage and screen. Pip (mature) is Alex Guinness and you really have to strain to see him - the features are there but he is very young.

In the end the story is a good one. Magwitch finally reveals himself to be the benefactor. Seems he was sent away to Australia to be a sheep farmer and made a fortune there. He contacted Jaggers and because Pip had been kind to the convict when he was trying to escape from a prison ship - Magwitch drops this transforming gift on the young lad. The plot thickens because a part of the sentence that Magwitch is under is not to return to England. Pip figures this out and tries to spirit both he and Magwitch out of the country (his love interest has forsaken him so why stay) but Magwitch's former partner betrays him and he is sentenced to be hanged. Luckily, in a normal Dickens twist, either through the accident that happens in his capture or as a result of old age, Magwitch escapes the hangman by dying first. But because Magwitch is not a blood relative of Pip - the young ward loses his annual stipend. Luckily, because Bartley Drummel has died, he rehooks up with Estella - who does inherit the fortune of Miss Haversham and they sell the estate and (presumably) live happily ever after.

There are a couple of other versions of the story in film. This one is good because Lean used black and white very well. The goodness of some characters and the evil of others is extremely stark - just as in the novel. The transformation of Magwitch - which is partially done with the use of lighting and effect - is especially stark. The movie is well worth seeing, especially, if you like Dickens.